3-D Puzzle Quiz

A good puzzle is part problem-solving and part magic. In the following quiz, we test your knowledge of some of the world's most mystifying 3-D puzzles. Are you ready to get stumped?

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Question 1 of 20

What is considered to be the oldest mechanical puzzle in the world?

The Chinese jigsaw puzzle

The Loculus of Archimedes

Made from a 14-piece dissection of a square, the Loculus of Archimedes required solvers to arrange the pieces in specific shapes, like elephants and ducks. A 2003 computer simulation found 536 distinct solutions to the ancient puzzle.

The Interlocking Rings of Babylon

Question 2 of 20

What is the only 3-D puzzle made by the popular 3-D jigsaw puzzle company Wrebbit to be pulled from shelves for religious reasons?

3D Taj Mahal

3D First Temple in Jerusalem

3D Mecca

The Saudi Arabian government specially ordered a 3-D jigsaw puzzle of Mecca, but then rejected the finished product as idolatrous because it looked "too realistic."

Question 3 of 20

How many 3-D puzzles was the 3-D puzzle company Wrebbit churning out every day at its single Canadian factory to keep up with the pre-holiday rush in the late 1990s?

5,000 puzzles a day

15,000 puzzles a day

30,000 puzzles a day

3-D puzzles were all the rage back in 1997, when The New York Times reported that Wrebbit was cranking out 30,000 puzzles a day.

Question 4 of 20

What was Paul Gallant's day job before he struck it rich as the amateur inventor of 3-D jigsaw puzzles?

Marketing executive

Gallant worked as a marketer and distributor for a Quebec-based classical music record label when he thought of the idea for 3-D jigsaw puzzles made from polyethylene foam.

Pastry chef

Patent officer

Question 5 of 20

How many possible color combinations can be made with a classic 3X3 Rubik's Cube?

43 million

43 billion

43,000 trillion

43,000 trillion combinations, but only one possible solution.

Question 6 of 20

How many videos are there on YouTube featuring the Rubik's Cube?

4,000

43,000

Among the 43,000 clips available are a 3-year-old Chinese girl solving the cube in 114 seconds, a Rubik's rap and lots and lots of speedcubing.

430,000

Question 7 of 20

The current world record for the fastest solve in an official speedcubing competition is how many seconds?

8.4 seconds

5.6 seconds

Feliks Zemdegs of Australia pulled off the lightning fast time of 5.6 seconds in the Melbourne Winter Open in 2011. His average for his five solves was 7.64 seconds.

4.5 seconds

Question 8 of 20

In a 2007 Rubik's world championship competition, how many times in a row did Hungary's Matyas Kuti solve a Rubik's Cube blindfolded?

9

12

18

In the blindfolded competition, solvers are given 15 seconds to examine a scrambled cube and then blindfolded. Kuti solved 18 puzzles; average solve times hover around a minute.

Question 9 of 20

What is the slowest recorded solve time for the Rubik's Cube?

16 days

3 years

26 years

Graham Parker of Portchester, England claims to have solved his cube after more than two decades of nearly continuous frustration.

Question 10 of 20

Which of the following is NOT the name of a method for solving the Rubik's Cube?

Schmidt method

The Ortega method is recommended for beginners, while most speedcubers use the Fridrich method, including the current world record holder, Feliks Zemdegs.

Ortega method

Fridrich method

Question 11 of 20

What is the maximum number of sequential moves required to open the world's most complicated puzzle box?

48

125

According to puzzle box lore, a few very large puzzle boxes have been handcrafted in Japan that require more than 100 moves to open. This one takes 125 moves to solve.

258

Question 12 of 20

According to calculations by IBM researchers, how many possible combinations can be arranged with a seemingly simple six-piece Burr puzzle?

350,000

35 million

35 billion

It took 2.5 years for IBM supercomputers to calculate the 35 billion possible positions and combinations that could be attempted with the six pieces of a Burr puzzle.

Question 13 of 20

True or False: There is a class of 3-D puzzles called "Impossible Puzzles."

True

The late Harry Eng was a master of the impossible puzzle, filling glass bottles with solid objects that are way too large to have passed through the bottle's opening, like solid pieces of wood, decks of cards and padlocks.

False

Question 14 of 20

The Puzzle of Fifteen, a sliding block puzzle in a box, sparked a worldwide obsession with puzzles in what year?

1520

1880

The craze began in America and Europe in 1880, then spread to Asia and beyond. A literally impossible version of the game, called the 14-15, or the Boss Puzzle, followed in its wake with several phony solvers claiming to have bested it.

1930

Question 15 of 20

When the Rubik's Cube was first released in Hungary, it was called Buvos Kocka, meaning what in English?

Magic Cube

Architect and professor Erno Rubik's ingeniously simple "Magic Cube" would go on to sell over 350 million units worldwide.

Twisted Cube

Crazy Cube

Question 16 of 20

True or False: The Rubik's Cube world championship features an event where contestants solve the cube using their feet.

True

Other events include one-handed solving, blindfolded solving, and solving variations on the cube, including 4X4, 5X5, 6X6, and 7X7 cubes.

False

Question 17 of 20

What's the world record for the most Rubik's Cubes solved in a single day?